I’m starting to notice more places doing this. Sorry, but it’s a cost of doing business and you need to build it into your price structure. Slapping a few extra % on to the bill is pretty cheezy!!
OK, I"m going to plop into my recliner and read a while since FCD is still snoozing.
Morning everyone, 43F here with light rain (at least it was when I took the dogs out).
{{Nellie}}, sorry to hear about rent and SIL health issues. Wish I had a solution, but it’s difficult to see someone’s entire problem from afar. So just good thoughts.
Happy Birthday red.
Finally getting through the holidays here. I’m dreading them more and more each year, and celebrate when they’re finally over. Arose at 4am yesterday to provide transport to the airport, and fighting DFW traffic for 2 hours is tops on my morning wish list (not).
The final guest (and dog) will depart in a few days, and we’re really looking forward to the peace and quiet. Although no one’s fault, the dogs are interacting badly sometimes, and it’s completely derailed our training of the new pup. Even potty training slid backwards. Also, we’re trying to keep her calm (ha!) after surgery and another dog makes that extremely difficult. But it will soon be over. Today she (Lucy, our new dog) hits the 10-day mark from surgery and is out of the hated cone, and can play outside off leash. So this should help her stress levels a lot.
I mentioned upthread we were buying a new RV. But I canceled the whole thing. Dealing with RV salesmen is like walking down the beach and giving a sea-gull one french fry. Soon you’re surrounded by squawking, grabbing animals, screeching at you, shitting all over you, and trying to steal everything you have (from your wallet). The constant surprise add-ons and fees and hiking prices here and there* became too much. I decided I didn’t have the patience for their bullshit and walked away. Maybe someday, but for now we’ll just use the camper we already have, as it doesn’t hit the 10-year prohibition until next year. Enough stress already in my life, and I don’t need to buy more at a vehicle dealer.
*I found one line on the contract called “deluxe delivery” for $800.00. They explained this was paying for the salesman to “train” me how everything worked. Another was labeled “Install and Prep” for $300.00. Found out this was charging me for the battery and propane tanks, which would be standard kit on any RV. It’s like a dealer charging extra for the car’s battery and fuel tank. @Chefguy is probably chuckling at this point. 
I’m pretty sure we sold our units “as is” with propane tanks and all that. That place sounds like a rip-off operation. As a sales person, I was expected to be there when the customer picked up their new rig, and to give them any instruction they needed. That doesn’t mean there couldn’t have been some charges that I didn’t know about, but I never saw the final paperwork on sales, which was handled by the sales manager. Never heard anyone complain, however.
Is that your personal prohibition or a law thing?
Having chopped up the leftover chicken, I came on line to find a recipe for grape-chicken-pecan salad. I had one and can’t find it, so I’m going to try a chicken-apple-grape-tarragon recipe. Wish me luck!!
Morning all. Slept well and will break my fast here in a bit. 37F heading for 47F and there is rain in the forecast after 6pm tonight. Swimming and sauna are on the schedule, but nothing much else besides a swampy level of sloth.
J-Bats, I usually get my hair cut 3-4 times a year, probably should visit more often, but I have so little hair up there anymore I hate paying $20 for 5-7 minutes of work.
Nellie, sounds like a bit of a racket on apartment rental costs; might have to re-figure my plan for getting one in a few years.
Never been a fan of chicken salad, but I wish swampy and FCM success in their endeavors.
Happy Birthday RED!!!
Taters, I have three levels of jackets, including a full winter coat, which I have not needed for many years. Wishing you success on your shopping.
yankers, does not sound like a reputable shop to me. Better to cancel and try again forearmed with the knowledge you now have.
FCM, good luck on the experimental recipe.
Well, need to finish the morning internetting and then forage for sustenance, so everyone have a good Firday.
I’m beginning to think y’all are right. They added over $4000 in unexpected fees on their contract worksheet. Then refused to let me leave the building with a copy of it. I took a pic with my phone though, so I could have a record.
Lots of RV parks prohibit rigs over 10 years in age. They want to keep things looking “upscale” and I suppose the the blanket 10 year limit is easier than a case by case evaluation. Ours has been stored in a covered garage since day 1 and looks almost new, so we could probably claim it’s under the limit for several more years. It’s not like they ask to see the title.
Apologies to everyone for my grumpiness earlier this morning - haven’t been sleeping well. And apologies to Cookie for the blanket condemnation of salesmen. There are obviously exceptions and I should have made that clear. Just frustrated I guess.
I plan to have a better week in spite of the universe, and I hope everyone else does too.
Jeez, yanker, it sounds like the dealership is trying to put the hooks to you. I didn’t know about the 10 year thing in parks.
Thank you for the birthday wishes. Other than putting on pants to pick up groceries and buy gas, it’s gonna be a jammies day, albeit, one that has me feeling a bit better.
Stay safe and healthy y’all!
Happy Birthday, red!!! Hope it’s the best year yet!
And I second, third and fourth that the dealership sounds incredibly underhanded, yanker - I’m glad you took a picture of the contract because that sounds bonkers.
I can’t believe we made it 'til Friday. A friend of mine texted me yesterday reminding me I’d promised to do dinner with them tonight. My house is a trainwreck but I invited them over anyway. My husband gets heartburn when our house isn’t perfect so it gave him a moment of panic, but I’ve known these people since college - I doubt they’re going to judge our slightly cluttered but scrubbed house when they’ve seen half my closet spilling into my dorm room at school.
Anyway, working at home today, which really is a luxury 'cause it’s cold outside.
Oh, I found out last night from walking on our treadmill in the basement that I indeed would have fallen over listening to that podcast. The treadmill is as old as our son (bought it when he was 3 weeks old) and rickety as hell but it’s better than me collapsing on a sidewalk because I was cackling so hard I lost my footing.
if you’re a (hetero) woman the old adage applies:
The odds are good but the goods are odd.
If you’re a (hetero) man the story is different:
The odds are bad but at least the goods are odd.
I did find my woman there. And a wonderful find it was. About 20 months after I started, but we didn’t get married for another 5 years, by which time she was long out of USAF and quite happily so.
IME/IMO, having been on the merchant end of that myself, it’s certainly possible to take one or the other but not both. IME from the consumer end, I’ve never ever seen it as a rank prohibition.
Relevant to your bit about billers, and an increasing number of ordinary retailers, starting to charge a surcharge for payment by credit card I could certainly imagine a merchant who got a great percentage deal from e.g. VISA and a crappy one from Mastercard or vice versa. Such that they might claim they don’t take e.g. MC, in an effort to drive all their sales towards VISA. But would if you wheedled a bit.
I think I’ve seen that, but it’d have been years ago. I see the same for e.g. “$10 minimum for credit cards.” Often that “$10” is kinda flexible or depends on who’s working the register today.
I know I try to always have one card of each kind on hand in case a problem affects one or the other kind.
I sense a pattern here. 
The answer is Uber. You want free room and board at my house for a week? Sure, glad to see you and happy to oblige! But transportation is 100% on you.
Sorry about RV rippoffery. IME over the decades, whenever there is a burst of inflation, one of the concomitant changes is a proliferation of bullshit fees. Just like the “shrinkflation” of package sizing, it’s a way to increase the bottom line revenue without increasing the topline advertised price.
And you seem quite reasonably engrumpified (is too a word!!) to me. No apologies needed in this quarter.
Happy birthday Red!!!1!
Um, there’s a difference between 3-month old quiche and 2 day leftover chicken… Which has been converted in to both a salad and a pot o’chickie noodle soup, so 
on you!
FCD has taken the trash and recycling, dishwasher has finished its cycle, I’ve made my HVAC service appointment for March 5, and I figured out my brilliant plan of having my sister drop us off at the airport won’t work because she won’t be home from her cruise in time. Dammit.
I know, first world problems…
I knew they were in Europe, but I just learned they’re also in China!
Mooooom, how many students are in daughter’s school? It seems there’s always something changing.
Metal mouse I hope you’ll soon see the end of all these leaks. Are you the first owner of the house?
Shoe, my mom will drink Grand Marnier straight if there’s nothing else interesting. Heck, I’ve even done it. But there’s usually something else interesting.
Coppertone, congrats on the job. Hopefully you’ll get more hours as you gain seniority with them (assuming you want them).
{{{Nellie}} Too bad you can’t talk sense into them - you’d think they would realize that long-term tenants are a good investment, especially compared to empty apartments. Hope SIL gets better-than-expected results.
JtC, sounds like my parents. They need to have something to do - otherwise they’d sit around like bumps on a log. At least that’s what they say. I can’t imagine them staying still for very long.
Hippo Birdie Red! 
Managed to pretend to be an adult and sent an email to a potential new accountant. Our previous one doesn’t want to work in our canton any more. I don’t like having to change, but I don’t have any choice.
Also needed to call the doctor’s office regarding a refill, but that I contracted it out - hubby did that.
Managed to get in a walk without getting too wet. The rain started in earnest a bit later, and it’s supposed to last until tomorrow morning. Hopefully there’ll be some more snow in the mountains - good for the ski resorts and the glaciers.
Afternoon, mumpers! It’s currently 6c/43f with no predicted change, and partly cloudy. That fits with what I have seen outside. Weather app says “It’s a fucking fine day to go muddin’.” Depends where you are in the country, some places out there are pretty flooded.
Happy birthday, Red 
{{{{{nellie and sister}}}}} I’m sorry about the rent and surgery woes, I wish there was something I could do to help, apart from offering a virtual hug or several.
Taters We have a Five Guys over here, I went once and was spectacularly underwhelmed. We found them across Europe too, and still haven’t bothered with them 
Moooom I get lots of things with added charges for using credit cards. The one that annoys me the most is the ticket charge for something I have to print out myself!
yanker sorry to hear about the sales rip-off, I hate having to buy a new vehicle. When I bought my current car, I went to one of the car sales websites and checked on their stock. Found one that had only just arrived, wasn’t even fully prepared for sale, emailed and said I wanted it (right size, right colour, right price) and that was pretty much it. I booked a test drive, went for a spin, signed the paperwork and a couple of weeks later, the car was mine.
It’s been a bit of a crazy irk day today. Have done a lot but achieved very little in the end. I had an hour-long meeting this morning about one of my minions who has been working for the uni for 35 years and is entitled to bonus annual leave, but HR never notified her about it and haven’t given me a straight answer to anything. It’s all very messy but we’re getting to the bottom of it, but it will involve a meeting with three of us on Monday to work out what’s going on, and how to manage it. HR think she’s taking 3 months off in one chunk, we are horrified by that idea because it’s annual leave so they won’t sanction hiring a temp to cover it, and there’s no good time of year to be off for that long. My minion has to be strong-armed into taking a block of two weeks, so asking her to take 3 months would probably cause a fit!
See? This is what drives me to drink, and it’s currently what’s keeping the local tea producers in business!
Yanker, sorry you didn’t get the RV you wanted, but I agree with the others that you did the right thing by walking away. Maybe there are other, more honest dealers out there? I tend to have a cynical view of vehicle dealerships in general, but I was treated very fairly the last time I bought a car. The internet has made car-buying much more transparent; maybe that hasn’t yet trickled down to RV sales.
Oh, and the 10-year prohibition thing sounds like RV parks are probably getting kickbacks from the manufacturers or something. Gotta keep people buying new things they don’t need.
I had a dream about my Mom* just before I woke up this morning, then I realized that today is the anniversary of her death. 4 years. (It actually seems much longer; a lot has changed since January 2020.) So I’ve been kind of melancholy today.
*Well, it wasn’t really about her. It was about a stand-up comedy show that turned into a sort of psychology panel, which in turn became a giant flea market/garage sale kind of thing. Ed Asner was one of the vendors. I spotted Mom looking at a serving tray/bowl set that was just like one she used to have. And just as I walked over to talk to her, my alarm woke me up. Dreams are weird.
Lots. It’s always amusing to use Booking.com, for example, because different hotels take different combos of the two. In Spain, I can often use MC but not Visa.
Costco accepts Visa, but not MasterCard.
I wanted to tell someone before I forgot. I got a text from one of the main surplus produce organizers saying that 255,762 lbs (or 127.8 tons) of surplus food went to people instead of the landfill last year.
That’s a drop in the bucket when you consider how much food is wasted in the rest of the country, but it’s pretty good for this little community.
I just lied after we passed the 10-year mark. I took excellent care of our rig; it was probably in better shape than most newer ones on the road.
When you go into the next place, I’d ask to talk to the sales manager before you deal with any sales person, tell him what went on at the other place, and get assurances that they’re not going to pull the same stunt. I would have been very pissed off to see that sort of game.
They just don’t want people pulling in with some shambling wreck that will put off other campers. I stayed in a place once that had what looked like some long-term residents, and most of the rigs were in bad shape. Doesn’t give you a good sense of security.
That is awesome. I read an article about reducing waste of single-use plastics so I’ve been thinking about how I can cut back. It’s not realistic to avoid all of it, but that doesn’t mean we can’t all do something. There’s a place called Grove Collaborative that does more environmentally sustainable cleaning products, so I think I’m going to start there. Also for jars, I’ve read you can pour boiling water into candle jars to get the wax out, so that’s a way to have a reusable glass container.
I’m having kind of a hard day. Nothing really bad has happened, but after I got the kid off to school I was so tired I went back to sleep. I took my ADHD meds late because of an insurance issue and I’ve been sitting around ever since instead of working. Plus I ordered delivery and had soda and caffeine. Lots of questionable choices pointing toward having an emotionally vulnerable day. Some days are just a wash, you gotta wipe the slate clean and start over tomorrow.
I never posted much in the MMP before because I found it so overwhelming, like walking into a crowded room where everyone knows everybody else. But I’m trying to keep up.
38, I think. Most are in grades 6-8. There’s only one senior this year.
Interesting… I don’t expect we’ll do much shopping on the cruise but we’re just taking our VISA. I guess that will determine if the grands get souvenirs or not! 
Miracle of miracles, my car repair came in under $300! Some of the brake parts were still in warranty, tho I had no idea when I last had brake work done. I love my car guys!
Anyway, yay! But of course, FCD is napping so I can’t fetch it yet.
I take my own containers with me when we go out to eat. I know I will be bringing leftovers home and the containers are light and easy to carry so it is an easy thing to do.
And now we all know you too so keep coming back!